Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Thank you so much.
In other news, 8_Hussars when I go to your link (because I'm curious about what information I can glean), the page will load for about a second and then crash.

I need help finding the most educational thread about crew and tank xp training that I found recently on WoT Eu Forums (fairly new thread, least 2018). Since I have no login, I can't use the search function, but whoever did it, did an amazing job explaining how the xp was distributed between tank and crew, how each type of personal reserves work, and how to maximize each type.
But google isn't helping me find it again.
Halp?

Looking at the tech tree as a whole, one has to wonder if they plan on making a full medium line to the 30b.
https://tanks.gg/techtree/france
Once they connect tier 5 to tier 9, they might fix some of those issues. Then again, they might not because reasons.

Curious you guys would suggest camo. I suppose it's worthwhile versus heavies. I'm a little surprised about armorer instead of Deadeye, but I can understand the reasoning. Armorer could work pretty well with my equipment setup. Swapping repairs out for JoAT is actually a really good idea. I rarely, rarely, have instances where I'm tracked and waiting for my repair skill to repair my tracks.

Buy back your patton. Don't buy back the m103. Tier for tier, M103 is probably the worst of all the US heavies. T1 Heavy and M6 are better imo with T29 being top dog and e5 being realy good for its tier. As for other feedback, I think the rest of the guys covered it.

So the title of the thread gives two options- the stg or the t-44. So that would imply I'm asking for feedback on those two specific tanks. And then there's my actual original post above: "Which is the preferred medium in the new 3/5/7 format?"

Do you really use the mod1 over any other Russian medium premiums? That's curious if true. Its speed hurts the soul. IMO you really need 1 of 2 things if playing a tier 8 medium with 10's: speed and/or alpha. It doesn't really have either. T-44-100 has speed. STG has alpha.
Not helpful.

Which premium is the preferred medium in the new 3/5/7 format? For instance I've shelved my CDC in favor of the M4 because alpha and gun depression just work SO much better. CDC was fun pre 3/5/7, but its armor and low alpha are just painful now.

I saw this earlier on the WoT forums. I didn't see it recently so I assume the original post was removed so I added my own. It's important consumer information for us all; help spread awareness.
https://ritastatusreport.live/2017/09/08/wgna-refuses-to-honor-own-policy-now-with-extra-shadiness/
Incidentally, the policy in place is still listed as this: https://na.wargaming.net/support/kb/articles/560
If Cabbage is receiving direction from on-high, don't be surprised if the linked policy above is changed for contests.
I would view this an instance meeting either of the following qualifications:
gifted a Premium Tank that you already own (A WG employee is technically gifting you a tank as a result of winning a contest; it's also how other players give out prizes for their own contests) -or-
Winning a Premium Tank in a live event (Twitch stream, player gathering, social media, etc)
Winners of said contest do not meet the qualifiers listed below for silver credit compensation:
On-Track Missions with a Premium Tank reward (not an On-Track mission)
Events via any other mission (Daily Log-In, Month Long Missions) (not an in-game mission)
You will still receive Credit compensation for bonus codes for Premium Tanks you already own (bonus code was never used)
(Posting this in wotlab forum as well as WoT forums because, frankly, the WoT forums post will probably be pulled.)